Communication devices, such as cellular telephones, have become increasingly versatile. For example, cellular telephones today often include applications that allow users to do more than just make and receive telephone calls, such as send/receive text messages, play music, play video games, take pictures, etc. As a result, cellular telephones have become an increasingly common part of every day life for a large number of users.
As a common part of every day life, cell phones are transported on one's person in some way. Typically, a cell phone is carried in a packet, a handbag, a case, a tote bag, or in a specially designed cover.
Moreover, having the cell phone carried around implies that it is often used in noisy environments. A problem arises when a wireless device such as a cellular phone and/or wireless pager device that is in a noisy environment rings or is otherwise activated with an incoming call/message, etc. The user of the ringing or beeping wireless device may not hear the tone at all or timely enough to respond to it.
Most cell phones include mechanisms for adjusting a loudness of a ringer. Some devices provide user interfaces for defining multiple signalling profiles, where each profile specifies a function that the ringing device and/or the vibrating device are to exhibit upon detection by the phone handset of an incoming call/message. A user of such devices can manually select the appropriate signalling profile in accordance with the user's immediate physical environment (e.g., ambient noise level).
One way of alerting the cell phone user is using a variable level for a ring tone or other alerting signals. An easy way to have adaptive level for sound output, e.g., ringer, alarm etc., is to check the input level of the microphone, i.e., if background noise level is high, then high level for audible ring; and if background noise level is low, then low level for audible ring. However, this technique does not work very well when the device is carried in a pocket, bag, or similar carrier, where the detected input noise level would be determined to be quiet but a low level audible level would not be heard by the user due to the muffling effect of the carrier.